October 17, 2007

These are the flower bulbs that bloom in the spring, so they must be planted now, in the fall. Planting them in the spring will not work, because they need a cold period in order to flower. Besides, you can’t buy them in the spring anyway.

Our order this year consists of mostly Tulips, Daffodils, and Grape Hyacinths with a few other bulbs tossed in for good measure.

This year we are planting only 10,000 bulbs (10,460 to be exact). We have planted as many as 20,000 and as few as 7,500.

I understand not everyone goes to this extreme. Even a couple of dozen can be used to create an effect. However, as you can tell, I believe that when it comes to bulbs, more is better!

This is what a pallet load of 10,000 bulbs looks like:

How does one or two gardeners plant 10,000 bulbs in one season? Check back in later to All Things Green and I will post some photos and more details.

I can hardly wait to start planting!

In the meantime, we need to put them into the cooler for safe keeping.

Most of the plants I’m moving today can be over-wintered in someone’s house. Some of them would need special conditions such as a bright, sunny, south window; for example the Orange tree, Brugmansia, Hibiscus and Olive. By the way, the Hibiscus and Brugmansia can both be pruned back to fit the space you have in your house… that’s what I’m planning to do.

The Asparagus Fern and Bird-of-Paradise would probably do fine in average light.

Colacasia does fine under somewhat lower light conditions, however, if you don’t have the room, you can simply store the tuber (root) like a sweet potato in a cool but not freezing dark spot.

There are still plenty more plants out here to move into the greenhouse!